5 ms·

Apple Pippin (1996)

68 points by org3432 9y ago

seltzered_ 9y ago
see also: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/03/the-mac-gaming-console-time-has-forgot/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/03/the-mac-gaming-consol... https://hn.algolia.com/?query=https:%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2Fgaming%2F2018%2F03%2Fthe-mac-gaming-console-time-has-forgot%2F&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?query=https:%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2F...
mwfunk 9y ago
I somehow never noticed that the Pippin controller was a batarang, like the prototype PS2 controller.
- simonlc 9y ago
  Ps3
- madeofpalk 9y ago
  Boomerang?
  - Someone 9y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batarang https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batarang: ”A batarang is a roughly bat-shaped throwing weapon used by the DC Comics superhero Batman. The name is a portmanteau of bat and boomerang, and was originally spelled baterang.”
    - madeofpalk 9y ago
      Right. I wouldnt exactly say that the pippin controller is bat-shaped.
rocky1138 9y ago
The Personal Computer Museum in Brantford, Ontario, Canada has one of these. It was the first time I had seen one in real life.
- simonlc 9y ago
  A flea market used game store has on in Montrel North. I asked how much and they reeally had no idead how much it was worth and quoted $4k because of an ebay listing.
  - vanadium 9y ago
    Console hardware collector here. $4K is insanely overpriced unless the thing was never opened in the first place. I've been meaning to get a Bandai @tmark Pippin from Japan, but we're still talking maybe $500-600 and the "games" are just too hard to find outside of a couple of non-gaming titles. Finding Bungie's Marathon is nigh impossible, for instance.
donatj 9y ago
I've played one a couple times. The latest time at the Midwest Gaming Classic which is happening again in a couple weeks. I actually really dig the controller, find it strangely comfortable.
- vanadium 9y ago
  I'll be at MGC in a couple of weeks and kinda hope that Pippin's there so I can have a go at it. :)
daodedickinson 9y ago
I'd play that racing game for a few minutes.
teddyh 9y ago
Review from 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h4t33tOG60 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h4t33tOG60
OrganicMSG 9y ago
> Once Bandai licensed Pippin from Apple, Apple made no effort to market the Pippin platform. All the marketing was to be done by the licensees. Bandai spent US$93 million in marketing alone to sell the Pippin line.[6] As part of the licensing agreement, both Bandai and Katz Media were not allowed to use the term "computer" when marketing the Pippin systems, so that the systems would not be confused with Apple's own Macintosh product line. That is genuinely mental.
- pmarreck 9y ago
  Steve Jobs made many brilliant decisions but two of the arguably worst missteps were 1) not ever having been a gamer, he had zero respect for games and the future growth of the gaming market (possibly also due to the fact that early Macintosh accusations included epithets such as "it's a fischer-price toy"), only to have this finally rectified on iOS, and 2) thinking a fruit diet would cure his pancreatic cancer. I've been a gamer and Mac user my whole life (our family got the Macintosh 128k when I was 12 in December 1984) and the entire time, Jobs had a love-hate (but mostly hate) relationship with Mac gaming (I must have been a masochist for persisting, except for the fact that my DOS brethren had nearly constant driver/IRQ/DMA/sound issues with their games, while Macs had zero issues, digitized stereo sound long before PC's did, etc.). Despite that, there was a time when some really excellent games existed only on Macintosh, until Myst got ported to Windows 95 and that pretty much was the beginning of the end of Mac-exclusive gaming, the final nail in that coffin being Halo (which was supposed to premiere on Macs) being bought by Microsoft (which I'm guessing Jobs simply let happen).
  - _acme 9y ago
    Steve Jobs worked at Atari. I don't think there was 'gaming' in the sense that you mean it when Steve Jobs was younger.
    - DiabloD3 9y ago
      For those downvoting this guy, http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-on-the-night-shift-at-atari-2014-8 http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-on-the-night-shift...
elvinyung 9y ago
Another interesting (and sad) recollection about games in early Apple products: https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Alice.txt&sortOrder=Sort+by+Rating&topic=Marketing https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&stor...
digi_owl 9y ago
Seems all the old guard of the micro era tried to go console in the end: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_CD32 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_CD32
- protomyth 9y ago
  Atari https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_XEGS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_XEGS interestingly they didn't do the SE version [edit: I should of said ST not SE]
  - digi_owl 9y ago
    Was considering including that one, except that it was based more on the Atari competition to the C64 rather than the ST.
- vanadium 9y ago
  With the CD32, though, you could legitimately turn it into an Amiga desktop.
EamonnMR 9y ago
Looks like I'm not the only one reading Secret History of Mac Gaming.

Apple Pippin (1996)

68 points by org3432 9y ago

see also: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/03/the-mac-gaming-console-time-has-forgot/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/03/the-mac-gaming-consol... https://hn.algolia.com/?query=https:%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2Fgaming%2F2018%2F03%2Fthe-mac-gaming-console-time-has-forgot%2F&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?query=https:%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2F...

mwfunk 9y ago

I somehow never noticed that the Pippin controller was a batarang, like the prototype PS2 controller.

simonlc 9y ago
Ps3
madeofpalk 9y ago
Boomerang?
- Someone 9y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batarang https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batarang: ”A batarang is a roughly bat-shaped throwing weapon used by the DC Comics superhero Batman. The name is a portmanteau of bat and boomerang, and was originally spelled baterang.”
  - madeofpalk 9y ago
    Right. I wouldnt exactly say that the pippin controller is bat-shaped.

rocky1138 9y ago

The Personal Computer Museum in Brantford, Ontario, Canada has one of these. It was the first time I had seen one in real life.

simonlc 9y ago
A flea market used game store has on in Montrel North. I asked how much and they reeally had no idead how much it was worth and quoted $4k because of an ebay listing.
- vanadium 9y ago
  Console hardware collector here. $4K is insanely overpriced unless the thing was never opened in the first place. I've been meaning to get a Bandai @tmark Pippin from Japan, but we're still talking maybe $500-600 and the "games" are just too hard to find outside of a couple of non-gaming titles. Finding Bungie's Marathon is nigh impossible, for instance.

donatj 9y ago

I've played one a couple times. The latest time at the Midwest Gaming Classic which is happening again in a couple weeks. I actually really dig the controller, find it strangely comfortable.

vanadium 9y ago
I'll be at MGC in a couple of weeks and kinda hope that Pippin's there so I can have a go at it. :)

daodedickinson 9y ago

I'd play that racing game for a few minutes.

teddyh 9y ago

Review from 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h4t33tOG60 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h4t33tOG60

OrganicMSG 9y ago

> Once Bandai licensed Pippin from Apple, Apple made no effort to market the Pippin platform. All the marketing was to be done by the licensees. Bandai spent US$93 million in marketing alone to sell the Pippin line.[6] As part of the licensing agreement, both Bandai and Katz Media were not allowed to use the term "computer" when marketing the Pippin systems, so that the systems would not be confused with Apple's own Macintosh product line. That is genuinely mental.

pmarreck 9y ago
Steve Jobs made many brilliant decisions but two of the arguably worst missteps were 1) not ever having been a gamer, he had zero respect for games and the future growth of the gaming market (possibly also due to the fact that early Macintosh accusations included epithets such as "it's a fischer-price toy"), only to have this finally rectified on iOS, and 2) thinking a fruit diet would cure his pancreatic cancer. I've been a gamer and Mac user my whole life (our family got the Macintosh 128k when I was 12 in December 1984) and the entire time, Jobs had a love-hate (but mostly hate) relationship with Mac gaming (I must have been a masochist for persisting, except for the fact that my DOS brethren had nearly constant driver/IRQ/DMA/sound issues with their games, while Macs had zero issues, digitized stereo sound long before PC's did, etc.). Despite that, there was a time when some really excellent games existed only on Macintosh, until Myst got ported to Windows 95 and that pretty much was the beginning of the end of Mac-exclusive gaming, the final nail in that coffin being Halo (which was supposed to premiere on Macs) being bought by Microsoft (which I'm guessing Jobs simply let happen).
- _acme 9y ago
  Steve Jobs worked at Atari. I don't think there was 'gaming' in the sense that you mean it when Steve Jobs was younger.
  - DiabloD3 9y ago
    For those downvoting this guy, http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-on-the-night-shift-at-atari-2014-8 http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-on-the-night-shift...

elvinyung 9y ago

Another interesting (and sad) recollection about games in early Apple products: https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Alice.txt&sortOrder=Sort+by+Rating&topic=Marketing https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&stor...

digi_owl 9y ago

Seems all the old guard of the micro era tried to go console in the end: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_CD32 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_CD32

protomyth 9y ago
Atari https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_XEGS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_XEGS interestingly they didn't do the SE version [edit: I should of said ST not SE]
- digi_owl 9y ago
  Was considering including that one, except that it was based more on the Atari competition to the C64 rather than the ST.
vanadium 9y ago
With the CD32, though, you could legitimately turn it into an Amiga desktop.

EamonnMR 9y ago

Looks like I'm not the only one reading Secret History of Mac Gaming.